It was a walk in the park for the Indian men's and women's teams on the opening day of the Hockey World League Round 2 on Monday.

The gulf in class was clear with the men thrashing Fiji 16-0, while the women registered a relatively conservative 8-0 scoreline against Kazakhstan. It was a particularly forgettable day for the tiny South Pacific island of Fiji, whose women's team was at the receiving end of a 14-0 score against Japan.

After playing in the highly competitive Hockey India League, the modest competition offered by the Fijians did not bother Michael Nobbs's boys who rode roughshod over the minnows. It was such one-way traffic that biggest victory margin, 24-1 against the United States at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, looked under threat.

Earlier, the Indian women's team had it easy against their Kazakh counterparts with Jaspreet Kaur finding the target four times, three from penalty corners and once from a penalty stroke. Rani Rampal shrugged off a knee injury, which has cast a doubt over her fitness, to slam three goals. Soundarya Yendala also got her name on the scoresheet.

Indian women's team after scoring a goal on Monday.

The tournament marks the beginning of India's quest for a berth at the 2014 World Cup at The Hague, but the sore sight was the almost completely empty stands which tell their own tale about the marketing and promotional efforts of the organisers.

The Indian men had a field day from penalty corners with six goals coming through that route. VR Raghunath struck three times while Rupinder Pal Singh scored twice with newcomer Gurjinder Singh also getting a goal.

Danish Mujtaba had three while Malak Singh had two. Five others found the target once, taking the total number of goal-scorers to 10.

Malak and Gurjinder received Rs 1lakh from Hockey India for scoring on debut.

Nobbs is pleased with the options in penalty corners.

"All the drag flickers have been doing well of late. It is always good to have competition in the team," he said.

If the Fijians thought they had a bad first-half conceding seven goals, the agony was compounded in the second period with nine more. India's next match is against Oman on Wednesday, and another big scoreline is expected.

Women's team coach Neil Hawgood sought to focus on the general play. "There were a few soft turnovers. Our next match is against Malaysia and we cannot take them lightly," the Australian said.

The other three matches of the first day were more competitive. In an upset according to the world rankings, the Malaysian women, ranked 22, defeated 20thplaced Russia 3-1.

Bangladesh men created a mild flutter when they took an early 2-0 lead against Ireland. But the Irish hit back to eventually win 5-2.

China defeated Oman 4-0 in another men's game. They have come with a relatively inexperienced side with 13 players in their first tournament.

On the women's side, the ninth-ranked Japanese also have several new players, and it has been a long time since they have faced India.